@ofsacrificeandfallingsnowsâ asked: Â â we all have sins to pay penance for. â
misc prompts for your feels
An abyss opens beneath him, grasping hungrily to pull him down; the same abyss that threatens to swallow him whole at every unwary moment: despair.
Sins, the Inquisitor says, as though with one word he might encompass the uncountable steps which have led here. Sins. Penance. Is that what this world has become for them, then? Penance? Penance to repent for-
A woman sings in a vast cavern behind a waterfall which cannot drown out her song: it carries through the hallways and balconies and chambers, carrying a spell of protection, of devotion to duty. Strength through obedience. Strength through worship. The wards on the enclave grow weak when the god she worships vanishes from the world, leaving a hollow ache in the void he once filled: she sings, she sings, she sings, but the song is an empty echo of itself, ringing off walls that cannot protect her forever, until at last the song fades.
A priest and a spirit succumb to despair, and their temple crumbles around them. Minds shatter and melt like fallen panes of ice, and all that remains is hatred and fear and hunger, clawing at the walls until the priests turn on their leader, fury giving their terror an outlet at last - and they carve him apart as he screams, and the name he screams cannot reach the ears of his god. Salvation will not come. They carve out his tongue. He chokes on his own blood. When at last they cut his head off - hacking and tearing with knives meant only for bloodletting, not this butcherâs work; it is a long and agonizing process, and they will not let him die to escape it - the black oblivion of solitary agony is nearly a mercy.
A goddess writhes on a bloodstained temple floor; her death throes have taken hours, power leaching out of her like blood seeping into snow, staining the world around her. He floats above himself, distant yet content, scarcely believing the culmination of a millenniumâs planning has at last come to fruition; she cannot be dead. She cannot. And yet. And yet.The world slides off its axis, heavy and weightless all at once, and he sinks to weary knees, but his twin is there, red and bright with his motherâs blood. It stains his hair. It stains his skin. It suits him, it suits him; this freedom, knowing she is gone, knowing they are free of her - they would laugh, both of them, but the others of the pantheon are still here, and this alliance is fragile, so fragile. The balance of power has shifted. There will be more blood, and soon. Soon.
Sins.
Erenanâs vision swims, the world tilts, as he reaches for memories that no longer exist. His last glimpse is of the Inquisitorâs face, white with concern, as he feels his body go limp.












